“Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Colossians 4:3-6
GOD AT WORK! Another door opens
In the winter of 1959 and 1960, Mr. Herb Harris went to spend some time with his brothers and sisters in Ontario and California. While in Palm Springs, California he had Gospel meetings in a rented building and there was some blessing in salvation in that resort area among people who lived and worked there. In the spring of that year he came to Oregon to visit the assembly I was a part of, and had a few nights of meetings and a Lord’s Day with the assembly. From there he went to Arlington, Washington where he had seen a good number of souls saved over the years. Donald Moffatt and his family had moved to Arlington, Washington where they lived for several years before moving back to Ontario where they came from originally.
The “Family Bible Hour” had been on CJON radio in St. John’s for ten years, and had expanded to many stations across Canada. There was a Christian radio station in Blaine, Washington, not far from Arlington, from which they could cover the lower mainland of British Columbia and the northwest part of Washington. Mr. Moffatt never lost his interest in Newfoundland and Labrador even though he only went back to visit two or three times after they left. They had lived and labored for the Lord, for a few years in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the early 1950s.
Herb Harris was in Vancouver, BC also for a while before going back to Newfoundland. He had a lot of spiritual children in the Vancouver area going back over forty years since he had his first Gospel series there. He had stopped at the assembly I was a part of in Oregon on his way to California to be with his relatives who lived there. I was in university at the time and he showed a little interest in what I had studied and what I had some training in.
George Campbell also left Labrador for a few months in the fall of 1959 to visit his parents and relatives, and then to get his pilot’s license. Andrew Bergsma was on the Labrador coast all that winter and spring preaching the Gospel in Forteau, L’Anse au Loup and Red Bay. Mr. Fred Holder also came to assist in the work on the Labrador coast on several occasions. George Campbell came by the assembly I was a part of in March or April of 1960, on his way from San Francisco to Toronto to get some flying lessons. George thought it would be good to not only be a licensed pilot, but to also have his float rating, so he knew how to take off and land an airplane on water. We had a few talks together about the work in Newfoundland and Labrador and he gave a report of that work at the Forest Grove Gospel Hall. Bert Joyce was experienced in flying a float plane as well as skis for winter landings on snow and ice. The airplane was his exercise and responsibility, but I guess between the two of them, they thought it would be good if they both were able to use the plane if Mr. Joyce was away for some reason. Mr. Joyce had a pilot’s license since he was a teenager. I guess it is different learning to fly when a person is a bit older. One becomes more cautious the older you get. A novice in flying airplanes or a novice in the assembly needs to learn by experience how to deal with issues that arise unexpectedly. That is why a novice is not to be one of the overseers of the local house of God.
I had been in university for some time and was intending to be a school teacher, so I was quite surprised at the end of June that summer when a phone call came from Mr. Harris. I was going to get my father who was an elder in our home assembly to talk to Mr. Harris, but he said he wanted to talk to me.
“I understand you did some courses in diesel mechanics a few years ago?” “Yes sir. I took some classes in Chicago in 1958.” “Well, I want you to come to Newfoundland to fix one of the engines on the ‘M.G.M.’ It is overheating, and I want to get the boat in the water next week.”
To say the least I was very surprised to even hear him call, let alone to ask if I would come to Newfoundland, so I said to him, “How long do I have to consider this and find out if I can do it?” “We’ve been on the phone two minutes, so you have one more minute to decide,” was his straightforward answer. Of course, that was in the days of the three- minute phone call, and after that the cost went through the roof.
I took a deep swallow, and a giant leap of faith and answered, “Yes Mr. Harris, I will gladly come and thank you for asking me. When do you want me to come?” “Well, today is Saturday,” he said, “And I would like you to be here by Monday or Tuesday if you can.”
By this time, I was practically shivering with fear because it was five o’clock Saturday evening, I was driving a truck for a man, and I would have to be able to get a Sunday evening or night flight to get there by that time. When our phone call was ended, and I told father and mother what it was about, they seemed to be really glad and that kind of surprised me. Then I went to the man I had been working for and he seemed glad about it and wrote out a check for my wages. He said to me, “I can always find a driver, but not many people will be taking the Gospel to wherever that place is.”
The elders of our assembly didn’t seem too surprised either and wrote a “happy fellowship” letter of commendation to the Corner Brook assembly that Saturday night. The next morning after the morning meetings of the assembly were over, an uncle of mine who had a pharmacy, asked me, “How are you off for money?” I told him I had a check for my wages and some other money in the bank, but the airlines wouldn’t take my personal check. So, he took me with him to some businesses that were open. Most businesses in 1960 were closed on the Lord’s Day in those days. Restaurants and gas stations were the exception. He was well-known to them and they loaned him the cash so that I could buy my ticket that night.
There is a lesson for us to learn in almost every experience we have, if we look for it and are willing to act upon what we learn. A Christian who has a business or is in some form of enterprise, will find before too long, the business community has your number. You will have a reputation built very soon that will stick with you all your life. My uncle was saved when he was about thirty years old. He had his pharmacy for five or six years before he was saved, but in his case there quite a visible change within a short time after the Lord saved him. He used to sell cigarettes and some other products that made him a lot of money. The markup was big and the demand was high. The day after the Lord saved him, he took all of that out of his store. People who came in to get those products, asked why they weren’t there, and in his quiet way he briefly told them his testimony.
Another thing he did was to order a supply of Bibles and put them right where the cigarettes had previously been. Above that, he hung on the wall a beautiful text painted. It wasn’t an actually scripture verse, but it said: “In peace let me resign my breath, And Thy salvation see. My sins deserved eternal death, But Jesus died for me.” When people asked about that he would tell them the story of Dr. Valpy who wrote it, and the many people over the years who learned that brief four-line stanza and were saved through the teaching contained in such a simple way. Over the many years he was in business, that was on the wall where everyone could see it. “Let your light so shine before men, that they might see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Passenger planes then were propeller driven then except for a few new Boeing 707s that were just being built. I got my first ride in a big airplane on my way to Newfoundland by way of Boston. From there Trans Canada Airlines flew to every airport in eastern Canada that was on the way to Halifax, and from there to Stephenville, NL. Even though I was stuck in fog for a day and a night in Sydney, Nova Scotia, I got to Corner Brook Wednesday morning after landing at Stephenville. Taking Eddie’s Taxi to Corner Brook I think was the longest drive on a gravel road I had in my life up until that time.
The first assembly person I met when I got out of the taxi at 8 Valley Road, was Harvey Lynch who took me to the “M.G.M.” where Mr. Harris was working on the boat to get it ready to put in the water after it being on the wharf for the winter. Later I met Melvin Hancock who was going to school in Corner Brook, and Henry Hancock was in doing some business. A few parts, some dismantling of pumps and a day or so fixing the water pumps, and we got the engines running right in a few days.
The Wednesday night meeting at the Gospel Hall was small compared to what I was used to, so every man there spoke in one way or another, once or twice. The same was on the
Lord’s Day. The rest of that first week of July was spent getting provisions, fuel, fresh water and other needed supplies for traveling north. The following Monday, Mr. Harris, Andy Bergsma, George Evans, Henry Hancock and I went north on the boat, although I didn’t know up until then where we were going. I think no one else except Mr. Harris did either, because we sailed right on past Daniel’s Harbour where he wanted to go.
Instead of Daniel’s Harbour we passed a number of settlements we could see from where we were about two or three miles off shore, and finally we stopped at a fairly large town called Port Saunders. George Evans caught a boat back to Corner Brook, and Henry Hancock went on another one to Labrador where he lived. Mr. Harris, Andy and I were there for about two weeks having meetings off the deck of the boat and visiting the people. Andy had his own way of visiting and wanted to go alone, so he and I spent the days going to the homes of Port Saunders. Mr. Harris couldn’t walk very well so he stayed with the boat.
The new road down the Northern Peninsula was being built then, and had gone as far as Port Saunders that summer. There was a small ferry at River of Ponds that could take a car on a raft set on oil barrels. There was a larger ferry at St. Paul’s that could take small trucks that carried some freight and took back lumber to Corner Brook. Most freight was delivered by coastal boats that hauled freight and people. There was usually one going one direction from Corner Brook to St. John’s and another going from St. John’s to Corner Brook. They would pass each other down on the northern part of the Northern Peninsula.
It was strange to me to see a car or pickup on the deck of the coastal boat almost every time it went north. The road wasn’t through and I wondered what they would do with a vehicle without a road. I was surprised to know that there was a road on the Labrador shore when there wasn’t one on the Newfoundland side. It was then I learned that there were short sections of road in a lot of areas that were never joined until quite a few years later.
Everything was new to me, even the way people talked, so I listened and wrote down words and phrases that I didn’t know. That way I could learn them and where they could be used in the right places in talking to people. I knew an engine had a head, animals and people had heads, boils came to a head, there was a head of steam that had to buildup in a steam engine (or a person with a bad temper), but I had never heard of a wharf having a head. It took me a while to learn which end was the head, and then I learned that a wharf doesn’t have a tail.
While there I also learned that men traveled a lot in Newfoundland outports, but women hardly ever went more than eight or ten miles to the next settlement. Men thought nothing of walking two or three days to go to work in the lumber woods, but when they were home, they only walked to the store to talk to other men. As far as I knew, the men would go to the store to get a one-hundred-pound bag of flour and carry it home on their shoulder. He would also carry home the kerosene or whatever heavy things his wife bought. A man would go to the store, to get tobacco and tell yarns. His wife would buy what she needed and go home with a bag of lighter things. His visit to the store would be mainly for telling stories and talking with other men. It was then I learned that a lot of the things I was used to at my home didn’t fit in Newfoundland. We lived quite a distance from other people on farms, and even in towns, people had fairly large lots on which their houses were built. In Newfoundland, people wanted to be close enough to call out to the neighbors from the back step. At our home, women didn’t want men around when they went shopping.
During the time men were home from the woods, they would mow and make hay, cut up and cleave enough wood for the family to use until he got back home the next time. If he had some time, he would go out in a boat to catch some fish to salt and then dry for the winter, and/or go into the country with his gun to find some birds or some wild meat for the family. During the latter part of the summer when he was home, he and his wife and children would go berry picking to get marsh-berries, partridge-berries, blueberries and raspberries. If he was home for a good while, he would make a trip up on the Long- Range Mountains to get bakeapples.
Even though I only came for the summer, I knew enough about Gospel work that a man had to be like the people he wanted to reach with the Gospel. He had to be a visual as well as an audible Christian. He needed to be among the people and able to do some things that might be a help to them. I did know how to use a scythe and a pitchfork so occasionally I was able to lend a hand to someone who looked like they could do with some help making hay. A man who was unwell was putting a roof on his house, and was glad for my help. That gave an opportunity to bring a little bit of the Gospel through my own testimony coming from a farm and being used to working in the woods. There were some who would come to meetings after we showed personal interest in them.
Visiting was very different from Oregon where I had done quite a bit of house to house work with Mr. Allen Ferguson. I had been able to preach the Gospel in a few different places but not every day, two or three times, and month after month. During the time in Port Saunders, we had at least one meeting a day and occasionally went a short distance to a couple of other small communities and had open-air meetings. In Newfoundland, everyone wanted to talk with us. They didn’t really want to talk much about the Gospel but they wanted me to go into the house and have tea and talk. So, I did. Andy was used to the way things were, so he would go and take about ten minutes and give a Gospel message, some tracts and then went to the next place. He would go to ten houses to my one. Usually after a long time talking about fishing, the lumber woods, logging and a bit about the USA, I could get around to telling my testimony or telling how I got the scar on my face that they all looked at and most asked what happened. That always opens doors to talk about being saved or lost.
Mr. Trimm senior, the father Stanley George, Gideon and others in English Point, has a daughter married to a Mountie in Port Saunders. He was glad to hear the Gospel there and was at the meeting each night with family members and people he knew in the area.
While we were in Port Saunders, Bert Joyce flew in and landed on the water with his brand-new Cessna 180 and tied it onto the water side of the “M.G.M.” What a beautiful airplane was LUJ, “Love Uncle Jake.” That was where I met Mr. Bert Joyce for the first time. Between the nice boat, the airplane and strangers in town from “up-a-long” Canada, and from the USA, we were known by everyone within hours. By the end of the second week, the community was divided as to who wanted us to stay and preach the Gospel in the open air, and who wanted us to leave.
One older woman came to the wharf to listen to every meeting. In talking to her one time, she told me she had kept all of the Ten Commandments, so she didn’t sin. She was not making a joke of the matter. She truly believed that was true. She knew a lot of “sinners” were in this town, but she believed she was “good.” Night after night she was there and even after listening to plain preaching, she still believed she had kept all of the commandments. And she knew every one of them word for word. She also knew the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer and the catechism. One night she mentioned she had the Commandments on a plaque on the wall of her kitchen. When I asked if I could see them, she seemed delighted that I would want to visit her again in her home. It was arranged for me to be there at 9:30 in the morning.
As I entered her yard through the gate, I saw the curtain move in the kitchen window, so I knew she had been waiting for me to come. On her kitchen table was a big family Bible open. Then she showed me the plaque of the Ten Commandments and it was really quite impressive and well done. It certainly had a prominent place on the wall. Then she poured some tea and we sat at the table to have tea and talk.
I saw the Bible open, and said to her, “Do you always read the Bible like that?” “O yes, my dear; I was reading it when you came through the gate.” “No, that’s not what I meant. Do you always read it upside down like that? The words are facing the window.”
She looked down at the page, and sure enough; the words were facing away from her. Red color came on her neck and face as she looked at the Bible, and finally looked at me. “You wanted me to think you were reading the Bible when I came, didn’t you?” The I went to the commandment plaque and pointed to the words, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” “That’s what those words mean…,” and I spoke to her by name.
“O my, I thought that meant when you’re in court, and I have never been to court.” “Can you understand that you have not really kept the commandments at all? To break one is to break them all; just like breaking one link in a chain, breaks the whole chain.” The poor lady started to cry, “O my, what can I do?”
“You can acknowledge you are a guilty sinner before God and tell Him that out loud. Then you can receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior from your own sins. He saves people from their sins who will trust Him to do that. That’s why He was willing to die for our sins. He knew we could not save ourselves, because we are all sinners. But He can and does save sinners from going to hell for breaking God’s laws. He suffered on the cross to pay the full price of our sins and bring us to God. That is what you can read about in the Bible.”
Mr. Joyce stayed a few days and came to Daniel’s Harbour where we went next. It was over half way through July by then and he felt he needed to get back to Red Bay as he had a lot to do to get ready for the winter. We anchored a bit off shore in Daniel’s Harbour because there was no government wharf to tie on to. We had a stern anchor out on the port side and a line tied to some big rocks on the starboard side. Forward we had two lines ashore so we were quite secure even if there was a bit of wind from the north, which didn’t happen often that time of year.
Each evening we played hymns and had an open-air meeting off the deck of the boat and a lot of people came down to the land-wash to listen. Mrs. Margaret Perry, Clarence’s wife, and her sisters from Charlottetown, Labrador, were there every night. There was a good interest so Mr. Harris arranged to rent a small building to have some nightly meetings in. The first night the little building was full and you could see interested faces in the lamplight. I opened with some hymns and a story for the children who were there. Then Mr. Bergsma and Mr. Harris preached the Gospel. It was a good start. The second night when we went to have the meeting, the man who owned the building said he couldn’t rent it to us anymore. The Anglican parson told him he could not do that, and was there to tell the owner what to say.
So, we went back to the boat and preached again from the open air even though it was raining. The next day was a nice day, and two men were working in the cove tying a boom of logs together. We had a good talk with them and helped them a little pushing the logs together so they could fasten them tight with ropes and chains. To our surprise a large crowd began to gather on the beach around the cove which seemed strange to us and to the two men as well. Naturally, we thought maybe they had come for an open-air meeting. It was the largest crowd we had – but it wasn’t to hear the Gospel.
The parson/minister from up the coast at Cow Head, had come and told all the people to come down to the land-wash. He passed out a few bottles of beer to three or four men. Then the minister rowed “the worshipful master” of the Orange Lodge out to our boat in a dory. The Orangeman was all dressed up with the sash on, hat, ribbons and all the rest of the things they wear, and he was standing up in the dory. “Ahoy aboard the boat,” I heard him call, so I opened the door and asked what I could do for them. “We want to talk to the captain!” I could tell he was upset, so when I told Mr. Harris what they wanted and they seemed upset, it didn’t bother him a bit. I was green as grass, and didn’t know much about what happens in Gospel work. Mr. Harris took his time and got all dressed up in his black suit, white shirt and wine-colored tie. Then he said to me, “There’s a captain’s hat around here somewhere. See if you can find it and bring it here.” When I got it and he put it on with the black suit and all, he looked pretty intimidating. “You go ahead of me, slide open the door, step out and go to the left. I’ll follow you and when I come out, I’ll go to the right.” It was quite an exit he made, and all the people on the shore went quiet as Mr. Harris leaned over the rail and said to the men below him in the dory, “What can I do for you men?”
The Lodge master spoke very loud because he was really nervous, “In the name of the Orange Lodge, I command you to leave this harbour!” Mr. Harris looked him in the eyes for a long time, maybe a minute or two, so there wasn’t a sound on the shore or anywhere, and then he said loud and clear, “No!” Then Mr. Harris waited for quite a while before he said, “Is there anything else I can help you with?” They both seemed stunned to silence and didn’t know what else to say. I guess they were so used to people jumping to do what they said, that they didn’t know what to say or do next. Mr. Harris turned and went through the door and signaled me to follow him and close the door behind me. “That’s round one!” he said. I was so naïve I hardly knew what was happening. The noise outside on the beach really grew loud as people began arguing among themselves. Some of the women who came to the meetings were the loudest and they were wanting us to stay and preach the Gospel.
Then the clergyman got some men with knives and axes to go to each rope that was tied on the land to cut them off, and he said to the men working on the boom of logs, “Go out in your boat and cut that rope off the anchor.” One man who had arms like logs, and was really big and tough, rolled up his sleeves and said, “No sir! I will not! And if I don’t,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Nobody else better!” “No one ever cuts the anchor off!” The other man who was working with him backed him right up.
Then another man came up and said to the parson, “I fought in the war under the Union Jack, and that boat is flying the Union Jack. You better not touch those lines or the next war will start right here!” With that he turned to the people and said, “Get on home, all of you. This is a free country. Tom and me and others fought for this. This is all a bunch of foolishness.”
That incident passed, but there was real tension in the community of Daniel’s Harbour. Late that night after it was dark, I heard a quiet voice calling, “Ahoy aboard the boat.” I thought the minister was back. It was so dark I couldn’t see anyone, but the person called out in the dark, “The parson’s getting a lot of people liquored up and they intend to cut you off in the night.” I called back and thanked him for the warning although I don’t know who the person was because I never saw him.
When I went inside and told Mr. Harris, I think he was kind of glad because he figured if the devil is working, God is going to work. Andy Bergsma was really having a hard time those days because he was exercised about going to Holland and wanted to leave for the mainland and home for a while before going to the Netherlands. He was spending a lot of time in the back cabin with the Lord, so much of what was happening kind of went over his head. But that night Mr. Harris set watches, and had Andy take the first one. About 12:30 Andy opened the door and saw a silent crowd coming down the beach and he called us up. All we could hear was the sound of gravel moving under their feet as they came toward us. Not one word was said by that whole crowd.
Mr. Harris told me to go out on deck and aim the searchlight, and he put Andy on the light switch that was inside. He would tell Andy when to turn it on and told me to shine it right on the crowd because, “Men love darkness rather than light.” As they got closer, I could see they were all dressed in white likely so no one could tell one person from the other. When they came to the place closest to the boat, Mr. Harris said to Andy, “Light!” And I aimed it right at the crowd. It was a flock of sheep!
Andy Bergsma had a loud laugh and when he got started laughing, he couldn’t quit. We all could hardly stop, even Mr. Harris. The attack band was a bunch of sheep! The Lord did save a nice number of people in Daniel’s Harbour, but the near riot never did leave the minds of the people, and it was hard to get people to come to meetings there, even though we put up a portable hall there for a couple of months. The most who were saved from that community, attended meetings that were held in Parsons Pond.
Lobster fishing was over by that time, and even early cod fishing had passed and the fall cod fishery when the fish were fatter hadn’t started. That time in the summer most men were in the woods cutting pulp for the Bowaters Paper Mill in Corner Brook. A few older men were at home and two or three men who had been fishing for lobsters earlier were trying to catch some cod but for the most part, our meetings in Daniel’s Harbour were women and children who came down to the cove to listen to the open-air meeting. We visited the town several times over and gave away a lot of “Kember Texts” that people really liked. Three or four people professed to be saved while we were there and two of them ultimately came into the assembly when it was formed at Parsons Pond.
Portland Creek was not far away so we went there a few times while we were anchored in Daniel’s Harbour, and visited the homes giving away texts and talking to the folks there. We were never turned away from any house in that community, but could some of the people argue! They loved confrontation and would raise their voice trying to intimidate us into being embarrassed. There was a great temptation on my part anyway, to try to do the same and win the argument, but I had been taught that whenever you are dealing with people about spiritual things, let them see the answer to their questions, or appropriate responses to arguments, for themselves, from the Bible.
Belburns was another community a few miles to the north, so we went there and gave out texts and talked to people. Again, no one turned us away, but we found out that there was a Pentecostal Church there and quite a few of the people attended because a pastor was stationed there. He was a young man a few years older than me, who was likeable but really didn’t know a whole lot about the Bible in general. He did know enough of the fundamentals of Gospel, that some people had been saved through his preaching. There was a problem there though, because more than half of those who had professed to be saved, lost their salvation as far as they were concerned. The main problem was that most of those who “lost their salvation,” were never saved in the first place.
There were some I had made connections with in my school years, who had professed to be saved, and thought they had “backslidden,” but that was quite common among many evangelical churches on the mainland. In Newfoundland the Pentecostals and Salvation Army at that time, were the only real evangelical churches. The Methodist Churches which in the past, were evangelical, had amalgamated with some other denominations and formed the United Church of Canada. Apart from a few older ministers, the Gospel wasn’t preached there any longer. It had become a formal group, that by 1967 when their new Sunday School curriculum came out, they turned away deliberately from being a “fundamental” group.